Because you demanded, as the saying goes. We originally published the result of our Greatest Sci-Fi & Fantasy icons in an SFX Collectors’ Edition published a couple of months back, but as that has now gone off sale, and many of you diodn’t get the chance to read it, we’re republishing the top 25 here.

Aa a heads up, here’s a reminder of the criteria we set out when the voting commenced back in April. To qualify to be on this list the character had to be from television or films – we weren’t accepting nominations for characters in books, comics, audio adventures or videogames. They had to have appeared on the screen in new material after 1 January 2000 – so that meant the likes of Han Solo wouldn’t be in the list; and if the characters, like the crew of a certain starship Enterprise for example, had been portrayed in the 20th century by others, we asked you not to vote for those incarnations of them, but to focus on their contemporary equivalents (whether you did or not is another matter!).

25 Walter Bishop

From: Fringe

Mad as a March hare and twice as fun

We already knew John Noble was one of those actors who could deeply inhabit any role after watching him trying to burn his son alive as Denethor in The Lord Of The Rings, but nothing prepared us for the joy of his Walter Bishop. Rescued from a mental asylum during Fringe’s debut, he’s spent the past few years delighting us by being despotic and sinister in one universe and as vulnerable as a child in ours, all the while failing to remember the name of his assistant (it’s Astrid!) and extolling the joys of candy, dangerous science and forgetting to put his clothes on. You never know what he’s going to do next – and that’s why he’s so wonderful.

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24 Echo

From: Dollhouse

Sci-fi’s most lovable schizoid

Echo is unique in this poll as the only character to completely change personality on a weekly basis. Thanks to Rossum’s mindwipe tech, Echo went on missions for the Dollhouse as everything from a blind woman of faith to a sassy master thief. All this changed in the second season, however. “By then, empowered with all these personalities, there was less ‘I like broccoli’ Echo and more ‘I’m gonna kill some bad people, really f–k ’em up’ Echo!” an equally sassy Eliza Dushku told SFX. From blank slate to the saviour of the human race, Echo gives Buffy a run for her money as Whedon’s premier female icon.

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@jarpad “@bodyguard4JandJ: Jared's new hat. You can find them at etsy.com/shop/HookedOnH… pic.twitter.com/okPgU2xN”- to keep warm in the impending weather!

Only last week we were talking about how most on Twitter rarely give us an insight into what they’re really thinking, putting on a public face as they would in any interview. Well, we can safely say that isn’t the case with Life On Mars/Ashes To Ashes creator Matthew Graham who took to Twitter this morning to right a few wrongs from an interview with Philip Glenister in this week’s Radio Times:

@MonasticProds In the radio times you will read that Phil created Fire Up The Quattro. He didn’t. Nor did “the writers”. It was me.

• I have drafts of Ashes going back to before he was even shown the script. Originally it was “fire up the Princess” .
• I sat down and deliberately coined a phrase that might rival “armed bastards”. Phil didn’t LIKE the line. wanted to drop it.
• Thanks Phil. Great timing mate. Thank you for that deluded ego trip. That sideways jibe. That public sneer after I sing your praises.
• Thanks for reducing 5 years by referring to Ash and I as “the writers”.
• I’ve decided to go fishing. I look forward to Phil’s next screenplay. I hear it’s a thriller that some writer helped him with.

Funnily enough, just five days ago Graham also tweeted this. Coincidence?

@MonasticProds This is where she is normally parked. I wrote that line you know. What a clever writer. ;) yfrog.com/hsv4ajgj

In yet more Matthew Graham news, SFX was very excited to read this pair of tweets from him recently. Very excited indeed. Is the return of Quatermass on the cards?

@MonasticProds Just enjoyed a delightful, laughter-filled lunch with Lord Grantham hisself – @hughbon What a lovely boyo he is.

Talk inevitably turned to Quatermass… #getthemtalking

In other news Firefly’s Simon Tam, Sean Maher, came out as a gay man on the interwebs last night, and the Twitter replies from his fellow Firefly cast members were enough to melt our tough journo hearts. *Sniff* can someone pass the tissues please?

@Sean_M_Maher Today is a big day for me! A long time coming and I have something extremely important to share with you all. t.co/yjbnN97e

Wait- I’m gay??? “@chadthodge: ‘Playboy Club’ and ‘Firefly’ Actor Sean Maher: I’m Gay towleroad.com/2011/09/playbo… @nbcplayboyclub #playboyclub”

@NathanFillion I hate to think of anyone suffering for being who they truly are. We love you, @Sean_M_Maher. We always have. t.co/H4NskAMU

@Sean_M_Maher @NathanFillion Many thanks Nathan. I love you too. But not like gay love. Just love love.                                   x

@alan_tudyk Welp, it looks like I owe Fillion 20 bucks. My money was on Adam Balwin coming out first. Love you Sean! t.co/8v5JDNVy

@adamsbaldwin That’s #Gay! | RT @alan_tudyk “Welp, it looks like I owe Fillion 20 bucks. My money was on Adam Balwin coming out first.” ~ #WhoIsAdamBalwin

@missmorenab I couldn’t love you more @Sean_M_Maher! Truly an inspiration. I’m behind you 100% t.co/wVe6cOEi

@JewelStaite Oh, @Sean_M_Maher I love u more than words can ever express. But my makeup artist does not. Cuz my mascara’s ruined. XO bit.ly/nH7BOP

@JaneEspenson Wanna see a leading man? @Sean_M_Maher — now THAT’s a leading man.

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The SFX Twitter Stream

@mishacollins Yeah! The 7th season of the reality show about the two mentally-challenged underwear-model brothers trying to impress God, begins tomorrow.

@iansomerhalder September 22, 7 years ago the premiere of a soon-to-be phenomenon aired&changed mine& all lives associated w/ it forever. That show was LOST

@steven_moffat Hugely enjoying Firefly, but can I just ask – did everybody love Dollhouse or was it just me and @PureHokum ?

@iwanrheon Just shot the last scene of Misfits 3…clang.

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@FrankMillerInk PS. For all you #TOS and #TNG debaters right now, the answer is: #KIRK

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@JamesGunn The “Do Zombies Poop?” controversy is settled with photographic evidence. twitpic.com/6okppd x

@bonniegrrl Pssst @feliciaday… RT @TheCupcakeBlog: Last Cupcake Standing Zombie Killer #Cupcakes bit.ly/pgxWkm #zombietalk

@NathanFillion Did I make a @GameOfThrones reference on Castle? Yes. Was it a cheap ploy to get on their show? …yes.

@charltonbrooker [old man mode] I remember when most games had quirky heroes like Monty Mole or Miner Willy. Now it’s all musclecocks who swear a lot.

@OldRoberts953 Thank you everybody for your lovely tweets re #ClosingTime. It’s been overwhelming and I’m so pleased you enjoyed it.

@Mruff221 Avengers Wrapped in NYC in the middle of central Park. It was an amazing day.

@jumblejim Okay now, who stole Bobby's ceiling? Bring it back now and you won't get in trouble..... I'm WAITING.

Twitter has been a scary place over the past week with the riots plaguing English cities dominating streams. At least now we know what the world will be like when the inevitable zombie apocalypse hits.

Things are feeling similarly apocalyptic over at the Syfy channel where Eureka received a very public execution this week with many of the stars seemingly as confused as fans were, as the network seemed unable to make its mind up about the show’s future. The bad news: one of Syfy’s longest running shows is toast (presumably to make room for another reality show or another hour of wrestling), the good news: there’s another one and a half seasons worth of episodes to go, huzzah!

With many of the stars, writers and show runners on Twitter there was a great deal of thanks poured through the internet pipe. And if you’re so inclined you can sign a twitition here to save the show. You never know…

@bergopolis Everyone is asking why. It’s simple, really.

We are the network’s golden child in every way, except profit margins. Fact is, #Eureka is an expensive show to make.

@sallirichardson I guess the word is out that Eureka is ending. I have loved being part of the Eureka family and the last day is going to be very sad.

@neilgrayston Seriously awed at all the kind words peeps! You guys make me fist pump/transition to air guitar so hard! #Eureka loves you!

@wilw Saying goodbye to #Eureka: is.gd/V1ootZ

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@colinferg Thanks for the outpouring of affection everyone. YOU made the show. YOU made it special. YOU made it worth being part of. Thank you so much

@jaimepaglia Thrilled that our network and studio are giving us another episode to make a #Eureka series finale. The fans and show deserve it. Thank you.

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The SFX Twitter Stream

@martinoxon Listing my favorite top ten horror comedies for an article: Shaun of the Dead, Shaun of the Dead, Shaun of the Dead, Shaun of the Dead…

@simonpegg Fab stories from Paul Freeman today. Apparently there maybe a community of snakes living at Elstree Studios descended from Raiders escapees.

@OliverPhelps Shame we had to give our wands back when we finished filming. That would sort these riots out.

@MonasticProds I never thought I would say this and I know it sounds trite – but I want Raymondo, Chris, Alex and The Guv out there tonight. I do.

@Eastbournepol To dispel another rumour, Godzilla hasn’t destroyed the #Eastbourne Pier We dispersed him before he had the chance

@edgarwright I wrote four pages today. At this rate, I will have a new film out by 2018. See you at the cinema!

@DamonLindelof Futuredharma! twitpic.com/612xcf

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@GroovyBruce I. Am. In. Oz. Sam Raimi refuses to tell me what character I will portray. Just know that the role is PIVOTAL. yfrog.com/gzsvmlbj

@David_Boreanaz Remember Andy Hallett.A great person who could light up a room,and turn a bad day into a day of Love and Laughter

@ZacharyLevi Dear @HamillHimself, It was an honor having you come play in our sandbox my friend. You’re welcome anytime. #maytheforcebewithusall :)

@alan_tudyk cowboys and aliens is okay for a space western but suffers from a painful lack of chinese

@TheRealNimoy Had dinner with Zachary Quinto. Great conversation, always. LLAP

6.06
“The Almost People”

Writer: Matthew Graham
Director: Julian Simpson

6.05
“The Rebel Flesh”

Writer: Matthew Graham
Director: Julian Simpson

THE ONE WHERE
A solar tsunami brings the Doctor, Amy and Rory to an acid pumping station, where the workers use a substance called “the Flesh” to create artificial doppelgangers (or “gangers”) who can stand in for them on dangerous jobs. Unfortunately, the copies are about to become sentient…

VERDICT
This may be a more traditional Who episode than we’ve seen so far this year, but that’s no bad thing. Life On Mars/Ashes To Ashes co-creator Matthew Graham has written an episode that follows plenty of well-trodden Doctor beats, yet still manages to feel original and packed with ideas – what it lacks in Moffat-style narrative gymnastics or Gaiman-ish esoterics, it more than makes up for with its solid, old school storytelling.

Indeed, the set-up is textbook: an isolated setting; a small cast (albeit a duplicated one); a dangerous, acid-filled environment; enemies within; science turned against humanity… While all the boxes for what makes a tense sci-fi thriller are ticked off, however, what makes the episode really special is the packaging. The Flesh is an ingenious concept, and – despite the acid-pumping crew’s assertions that their gangers have no minds of their own – a piece of tech that was always bound to turn on its creators. This is science fiction, after all…

Meanwhile, the fact that the gangers have all the memories of the “parent” means they’re not just mindless (though they are occasionally faceless) clones , and raises intriguing moral questions about whether they have as much right to exist as the originals, or how you might cope with the idea that there are suddenly two of you. You certainly won’t have encountered quandaries like these earlier this evening on Don’t Scare The Hare.

The episode also looks fantastic. The abbey setting is the last place you’d expect to find a factory, and that’s why it works, blowing the cliché of a futuristic industrial setting apart immediately, and making you feel like you’re watching something new. And aside from the occasional bit of shonky CG (see below), the effects that create a spectacularly stormy sky and the shapeshifting gangers are generally brilliant. A cracking way to start a two-parter.

NITPICK
While the visual effects are generally pretty good, the shot of Jennifer’s head bursting through a toilet door on the end of a tentacle is far from convincing. To be fair, though, I’ve never seen any film/show make this kind of effect look anything approaching realistic.

INFLUENCES
Everything from Invasion Of The Body Snatchers’and The Thing’s enemies within to Blade Runner’s synthetic humans craving a life of their own – a veritable smorgasbord of top science fiction repackaged in a fresh way.

SPECULATION
What does the Doctor know about the Flesh? Where has he encountered it before? Will it evolve into something we’ve seen before? Could the ganger Doctor be the Time Lord we saw getting shot at the beginning of “The Impossible Astronaut”? And will Dicken’s cold become crucial, War Of The Worlds style? (That would be rather disappointing.)

WTF?
What precisely is Jennifer measuring when she scans the acid and gives a reading of 9.7? It can’t be pH (the traditional measure of acid strength) because as any GCSE chemistry student will tell you, anything over 7 means alkali.

DID YOU SPOT?
Eyepatch lady makes her weekly appearance through a hole in a door when Amy goes looking for Rory.

STAR TURNS
Matthew Graham brings Marshall Lancaster (DC Chris Skelton) along for the ride as Buzzer; Mark Bonnar (Jimmy) can currently be seen as murderous Detective Finney in Psychoville, and he appeared in 2009’s Paradox; Sarah Smart (Jennifer) is a stalwart of Brit TV, arguably most famous for At Home With The Braithwaites and (to kids of the ’90s) Woof!; and Raquel Cassidy (Foreman Cleaves) has had roles in Land Girls, Moving Wallpaper and Jack Dee’s Lead Balloon.

BEST LINE
Jennifer: “I thought I was going to die.”
Rory: “Welcome to my world.”

Richard Edwards

This week, we’re concentrating on pre-existing rock and pop songs co-opted for use in SF and fantasy TV episodes. In the near future, we’ll have a sequel feature covering songs specially written for screen sci-fi. So what are you waiting for? Get your dancing shoes on and boogie.

Text by Jayne Nelson, Dave Golder and Jordan Farley. Positions decided through lots of arguing.

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10 “Hurt” Smallville

Episode: “Shattered”
Artist: Johnny Cash (covering Nine Inch Nails)

Around 2003-4 you couldn’t escape “Hurt” – it seemed to turn up on more soundtracks than the Wilhelm scream – and it wasn’t truly replaced as unimaginative producers’ fave choice for upping the angst ante until they all suddenly discovered Jeff Buckley’s “Hallelujah” instead. But Smallville got in there early, so kudos to the show’s creators for recognising the amazing, elemental power of the Man In Black’s rolling thunder vocals married to Trent Reznor’s most wrist-slitting lyrics. More than that, though, it was the perfect combination of song and images, accompanying a harrowing montage showing Lionel Luthor having his son committed to a mental asylum purely to cover up his own past misdemeanours. Smallville has rarely felt so raw and so traumatic. Listen to it here.

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If FROM THE OFFICE started with a sponsor’s message, this week it would be courtesy of the kind folk at Nescafé, Starbucks and Lemsip, because after a riotous few days in Camber Sands the SFX team are suffering from the after-effects of the SFX Weekender 2 – primarily a level of sleep deprivation that would be classified as torture under the Geneva convention.

To make matters worse, this week is deadline week on issue 207. Not that the issue won’t be up to our usual high standards – we are professionals after all.

Despite a post-Weekender haze there was a bit of excitement in the office on Wednesday when it suddenly occurred to the team that issue 206 was on sale up and down the land that very day. It’s easy to forget such things when you’ve got the small matter of a live on-stage interview with George Takei, or Keeley Hawes, or Craig Charles on your mind. Grab a copy today for features on Sucker Punch, Drive Angry and the full list of SFX Awards Winners, including the all-important Sexiest Male/Female!

It’s saying something when a Doctor Who set visit and a chat with Howard Overman about Misfits series three aren’t the most exciting things to come out of SFX Towers in a given week, but the SFX Weekender trumps them both (well, just). We could go on for hours about our highlights: hanging out with Steven Moffat and Russell Tovey in the bar, the subscribers’ breakfast, the SFX Awards, Dave Golder getting his head shaved (see below), The Llama God’s ingenious Maskerade costume (okay, bit of a stretch to call that one a “highlight”). But more importantly, the team would like to extend their thanks to each and every person who showed up to support our little sci-fi extravaganza. The reaction on the forum has been overwhelming and much appreciated. Roll on Prestatyn in 2012!

Dave Golder: master of hair dye, not so hot with the gel.

Rich is still in a post-Pontin’s daze. He’s still not quite sure how to adapt to the world that exists after the Weekender. Dave and Jon meanwhile are downstairs, but not for long because as announced at the SFX Weekender, from issue 208 the magazine will regenerate into its shiny new format. Don’t fret, we’re not throwing out the baby with the bathwater though, the content and features you know and love will remain largely the same, we’re simply giving it a swish makeover. Find out what all the fuss is about on 6 April.

A delicious chocolate cake given to us by the lovely Tania at the Weekender.

Nick is still comprehensively zonked from the Weekender. We blame the all-consuming adrenalin rush of interviewing Keeley Hawes live on stage – he’s still proud of the tough, interrogative journalism of asking her “So, Duran Duran or Spandau Ballet?” – though the first ten minutes of Outcasts sent him into a state of catatonic shutdown that he’s still trying to shift. He’s also trying to recover from the macho foolishness of his 5.30 am confrontation with the drunken man storming around Pontins. Tip to Nick: this is not a good idea if a) he’s bigger than you and b) you’re in your boxers. More happily, he spent Saturday night at the bar with Steven Moffat, having a magnificently geeky discussion of all things Bond. He’ll never be able to watch On Her Majesty’s Secret Service in the same way again.

Jordan, on the other hand, is starting to think he might be the only person in the country who actually quite likes what he’s seen of Outcasts so far. A bit dull, yes, but he’s a glutton for punishment – “the bleaker the better” he was heard muttering at one point. He obviously derives too much pleasure from work and life in general; tea duties for the next week it is.

Ian’s had a very Welsh week. It was off to Cardiff last week for Torchwood: Miracle Day interviews with Eve Myles, John Barrowman, Mekhi Phifer and Russell T Davies; then back to Cardiff again yesterday for Doctor Who, meeting Matt, Karen, Arthur and guest star Hugh Bonneville, and finally getting the chance to have a sneaky wander around that magnificent new TARDIS set (cor, it’s lovely). And he managed both trips without accidentally getting caught up in any kinky sexual scenarios, despite what watching Being Human had led him to expect. Result! Sadly, he can’t tell you anything he learnt – except, perhaps, that Hugh Bonneville is surprisingly fond of wine gums.

Ade is in London town seeing the film Paul today, but is still feeling the effects of the Weekender. His Facebook page over the last two days has been tagged with so many fab pictures from the weekend (many he can’t remember ever being taken) and he would like to thank everyone for making it one hell of a Weekender to remember, especially those who won items in the Charity Auction, which has made over £2,000 so far for Great Ormond Street.

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Random Quote Of The Week: “Be more absorbent, you bastard!”

Whose Shoes? A Converse special! (last week’s answer: it was Rob’s desk – and yes, you have to guess all three)

The results, straight from The SFX Weekender…

Best Novel

I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett (click here to see Terry’s acceptance speech)

Runners up:

Kraken by China Miéville
The Midnight Mayor by Kate Griffin?The Passage by Justin Cronin
The Passage by Justin Cronin

Best Actor

Matt Smith (Doctor Who)

Runners up

David Tennant (Doctor Who)
Leonardo DiCaprio (Inception)
Robert Downey Jr (Iron Man 2)

Message from Matt Smith: “Thank you so much to the readers of SFX for voting for me. I’m really proud to have won this award and it’s amazing to receive such fantastic support from fans of the show.  I’d also like to thank the team at SFX who  have continued to produce brilliant coverage on the show – the magazine’s 3D lenticular cover last April was incredible and a real highlight for everyone involved in Doctor Who.”

Best Actress

Karen Gillan (Doctor Who)

Runners-up:

Chloe Moretz (Kick-Ass)
Yvonne Strahovski (Chuck)
Zoe Saldana (Avatar)

Message from Karen: “Wooah! I really wasn’t expecting that! I’m completely honoured that the cool cats who read SFX have voted me best actress! Basically I’m trying to say thanks to each and every reader who took the time to vote. I would also like to thank the Doctor Who production team who work so hard every day to make this show a success. And a big thank you to Matt and Arthur for making the TARDIS team such fun to be in.

“We are back on your screens this spring with some seriously scary stuff going down. So look out….”

Best Comic Or Graphic Novel

Sponsored by Comic Heroes magazine

Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season 8 by Joss Whedon and Georges Jeanty (click here to see the acceptance speech)

Runners-up:

Batman And Robin by Grant Morrison and various artists
The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard
The Marvels Project by Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting

Best Videogame

Sponsored by MCM Expo

Super Mario Galaxy 2

Runners-up

God Of War 3
Mass Effect 2
Final Fantasy XIII

Best Collectable, Model Or Toy

Sponsored by Alchemy

Eleven Doctors action figure set from Character Options

Runners-up:

Movie t-shirts from Last Exit to Nowhere
Starfleet badge replicas from Quantum Mechanix
Marvel/Star Wars headphones from Coloud

Best TV Show

Sponsored by Top Trumps

Doctor Who

Runners-up:
Misfits
Supernatural
True Blood

Best TV Episode

The last ever episode of Ashes To Ashes

Runners-up:

Doctor Who: “Vincent And The Doctor”
Supernatural: “Swan Song”
True Blood: “Everything Is Broken”

Message from Matthew Graham: “I’m very sorry not to be attending what I’m sure is an extremely sober and civilized event carried out in a calm, orderly fashion. Sadly I was nicked whilst ‘taffing a crate load of hooky smokes from Froggyland. Old Bill got leery so me and Ronnie The Roach had to go to town with a couple of sawn-offs. Pretty soon The Dog And Duck looked like the Battle Of Bleedin’ Trafalgar and it all ended with Yours Truly looking down the business-end of a 5-stretch. But as they say in Spain- Que sera. Which means ‘kiss my arse’ in Queen’s English.

“There’s so many people I’d like to thank – but sadly they’re all either dead or in stir.

“SFX has always been a stalwart supporter of both Hunt incarnations for which we are all extremely grateful. This award is the glace cherry on top of the black forrest gateau.

“Many many thanks and have a great night. And try not to behave like low-life slags or we’ll send the rozzers in.”

Best Film Director

Edgar Wright for Scott Pilgrim Vs The World (click here to see Edgar’s acceptance speech)

Runners-up:

Christopher Nolan for Inception
James Cameron for Avatar
Lee Unkrich for Toy Story 3

Best Film

Inception
Runners-up:

Toy Story 3
Kick-Ass
Avatar

Sci-Fi Phenomenon Award

Sponsored by Skyline

Doctor Who

SFX Outstanding Contribution Award

Terry Pratchett (click here to see Terry’s acceptance speech)

SFX Breakout Of The Year

Misfits

SFX Hope For The Future

Sponsored by Red Faction: Armageddon

Gareth Edwards, director of Monsters (click here to see Gareth’s acceptance speech)

SFX Cult Hero

Russell Tovey

Christmas is an excuse for indulgence. An editorial column, also, is an excuse for indulgence (don’t listen to any journalist who suggests otherwise no matter how silver-tongued their prose). So before I go overboard on turkey, trimmings and tipples tomorrow, I’m going to unashamedly overdose here on some of my favourite things about SF and Fantasy in 2010. Next week, for my final editorial of the year – when I’ve got a hangover, squiffy tummy and bad attitude – I’ll treat you to some of my clunkers of the year (though – newsflash – Lost’s finale and No Ordinary Family will feature) but for now, I’m full of Christmas cheer (and will be fuller by the end of this column, thanks to the glass of Pinot beside me) and only in a mood to hand out presents to shows an films that have been good this year, not naughty (though in the case of Misfits, both are valid). So, on we go:

Animated Film Of The Year: How To Train Your Dragon
I’m going to paraphrase SFX’s Jordan here because he hit the nail on the head when he said to me during the end-of-term Twister game we were having in the office this week, “Toy Story 3 was virtually perfect, but you expect that from the Toy Story movies. How To Train Your Dragon was so much more entertaining because you didn’t expect it to be so great.” Plus, I’m a sucker for dragons. However…

Best Cameo Of The Year: Totoro in Toy Story 3
I just wish he’d had a line and said something in Japanese.

Man Of The Year: Matt Smith
He certainly spanned the year, first turning up on New Year’s Day, and back on our screens for Christmas Day tomorrow. What a brave man, taking over from the impossibly popular David Tennant, but any worries that because of his age and lanky frame (and his first few moments in “The End Of Time Part Two”) he was going to be a pale Tennant impersonator were rapidly dispelled in the first few minutes of “The Eleventh Hour”. This guy is the most physical actor ever to have played the Doctor, and his barrage of nervous ticks, quirky mannerisms and mercurial expressions have created a Doctor who’s the ultimate in cool uncool. He is the old man in the youthful body, and he plays the role like the body doesn’t quite fit, but he’s oblivious to the fact. The fifth series itself may have a variable affair quality-wise, but Matt has been awesome throughout. And if you’re still yet to be convinced, tune into the Christmas special – I reckon he’s going to win a whole new load of converts.

Difficult Second Album Of The Year: Misfits
2009 saw the launch of two great, great new UK telefantasy shows: Being Human and Misfits. So, could they maintain the quality for their second series? Or was it going to be the case of the difficult second album? You know, when a band disappoints with a follow-up album because all the great tracks they’d been working on for years were on the first album. The second album then either becomes a case of “try to do the same thing again” (which runs the risk of producing an album that sounds like a watered down version of the first one) or “try something new and different” (which runs the risk of losing the elements that made the band popular in the first place). Being Human tried the second approach and should be applauded for being brave enough to do so. But despite some brilliant moments, and three great, great episodes, there was still the annoying feeling that the banter and camaraderie between the three stars which had been a key element in series one, was somehow lacking this time around. Misfits instead went for option one… but amazingly managed to make the same tunes sound even better. Misfits series two was stunningly good. Surely series three can’t get any better?

Woman Of The Year: Jane Espenson
Oh, it was so tempting to vote for Yvonne Strahovski, but I’ve already let my testosterone get the better of me here, so instead I’m going to go for the possibly surprising choice of Buffy and Galactica scripter Jane Espenson. Surprising, because she hasn’t really had that much on screen this year. But she was chosen as one of the writers on the new US Torchwood which has to rate as one of the canniest decision Russell T Davies has ever made – not just because she a great writer but because she brings her own set of devoted fans, and a level of cult cool, along with her. And ever since the announcement she’s been merrily drip-feeding us info about the series via Twitter. She seems so nice, and yet she’s such a tease!

Episode Of The Year: Ashes To Ashes’ series finale
And not just because the discussion it caused afterwards lead the record for the “most users online simultaneously” ever on the SFX forum (that’s some feat when usually all anybody ever wants to talk about is Doctor Who or why their subs copy hasn’t arrived yet). For me, this was the prefect pay-off for five years of the modern TV myth that was Gene Hunt. It was emotional without being sentimental. It made sense. It wasn’t predictable. It was perfectly performed and executed. All things which the finale of Lost wasn’t. In my opinion.

Comic Of The Year: Phonogram – The Singles Club

Magic. Indie music. Overlapping stories of teen angst. Bristol. Stunning artwork. Sparse, economical dialogue. Sudden moments of post-modern genius. Something truly original from the world of comics. I loved it. You may have guessed.

Sheer Balls Of The Year: the writers and producers of Fringe
First they come up with that bonkers idea of alternating episodes between the “real” world and the “alternative” world – which we predicted could be commercial disaster while a fan-pleaser. Then, when dwindling audiences lead to the show being shunted to the notorious “Friday night on Fox” death zone (ask Joss Whedon) instead of taking it lying down, they just adopted a “bring it on!” attitude, calling the first episode in the new time slot “Firefly” and creating a trailer which cheekily annouced that the show was going to regenerate Friday nights. We wish them the best of luck, we really do, because the show itself remains as enthralling bat’s-arse as ever.

Best New Show Of The Year: Lost Girl
Not heard of it? Well, it’s not brilliant (but in a year that gave us No Ordinary Family it doesn’t need to be), but it is a lot of fun. Think a beef-up Charmed or Buffy-lite, but with more lesbian snogging (it’s a about a succubus, y’see). It’s chokka with cheeky lines, quirky characters and silly plots, and also boasts a gutsy pair of performances from its two female leads (and no that’s not a sexiest gag about Bo’s ample bosom). It feels somewhere between those whimsical shows so beloved of Syfy at the mo’ and True Blood – though we’d much prefer to see it move to HBO than Syfy.

Best Show Called Chuck Of The Year: Chuck
An honorary award, because while I don’t think Chuck is the tip top best in any other category, it comes close, and also consistently makes me feel very happy every week. I genuinely think it’s been better this year than ever before. It’s a Marmite show, I know, but I love Marmite.

Grossest Moment Of The Year: Alien Afterbirth In Misfits
The show managed to out-gross True Blood. That takes some doing… Though True Blood does win the “Twisted Sex Of The Year Award” (people who’ve seen it will understand, but we won’t spoil it for those watching in the UK for the first time next year).

Film Of The Year: Scott Pilgrim Versus The World
Look, I loved Kick-Ass too, but Scott Pilgrim was just so joyously anarchic. And while Inception intrigued me intellectually, it left me cold emotionally.

Newcomer Of The Year: Gareth Edwards
Even if he hadn’t directed such a fresh, edgy, witty and sumptuous-looking film as Monster, I’d give him this award for just being such a damned entertaining interviewee: ““We can talk after [my next film’s] made and you can tell me how shit it is and how I’ve sold out.”

Novel Of The Year: Kraken/Surface Detail
It’s a tie! And I know I should go for something less obvious, but honestly, both these books show the respective authors at the top of their game and also having a lot of fun. If pushed, I’d have to go for China Mieville’s action-packed oddity One Of Our Squid Is Missing, but only because Banksie’s spaced-out space opera caused me so much angst reviewing it: the one thing you want to point out you can’t – or even allude to – because IT’S A MAJOR BLOODY SPOILER! Even saying that I fear I’ve said too much…

Matthew Graham

Life On Mars co-creators Ashley Pharoah and Matthew Graham are writing a new supernatural legal drama for ITV called Eternal Law, which will be produced  by Kudos, the studio behind Spooks, Hustle and the upcoming Outcasts, as well as Mars and Ashes To Ashes.

The six-part series, which will start shooting in York next February, follows two angels, lawyers Zak and Tom, who are sent to earth to help a community and gain an understanding of humans. They discover that an old adversary  – dark angel, Richard Pembroke – is determined they will fail.

ITV is decribing it as “Life-affirming, warm and witty… a unique blend of the intensely real and the magical.”

ITV’s director of drama commissioning, Laura Mackie adds: “Eternal Law is a unique and original drama from two of the country’s best and most imaginative writers. “They have created two brilliant characters in Zak and Tom and I’m delighted we’re shooting this in the spectacular city of York.”

Sally Joynson, chief executive of Screen Yorkshire, which attracts and support film and television production in the region, said it was a “major coup” to bring such a high-profile drama to York, adding that the show will, “showcase the stunning historic city of York to millions of prime time viewers across the UK, and potentially internationally”, so the economic benefits would “extend well beyond the reach of the local production community.”

Oh, and we won’t mention Bonekickers…

She’s travelled back in time to the 1980s, saved the UK from terrorists as a member of MI5, and been an obtainer of rare antiquities so successful that even Indiana Jones would stand up and take notice. Now Keeley Hawes is coming to Camber Sands in February 2011 to appear at the SFX Weekender 2.

Yes, we’re delighted to announce that Keeley is the latest star to sign up to appear at our packed weekend event*, joining fellow sci-fi and fantasy superstars Anthony Head, George Takei and Terry Pratchett.

Keeley’s now best known for being more than a match for the legendary Gene Hunt as time-travelling copper Alex “Bolly Knickers” Drake in the brilliant Ashes To Ashes, but even before she went back in time, her starring role in the first three seasons of top spy show Spooks had established her as one of the hottest acting talents in the UK.

Arguably her most famous role, however, is as the voice of aristocratic Tomb Raider Lara Croft – you might not know it, but Keeley’s lent her vocal cords to the iconic videogame character since 2006.  She’s also recently appeared in ITV police drama Identity, and has just finished filming an update of Upstairs, Downstairs. Now it’s off to the SFX Weekender…

The SFX Weekender 2 takes place at Camber Sands holiday camp in East Sussex on Friday 4 February and Saturday 5th February 2011, with our Pre-Party on Thursday 3rd February for the early birds. VIP tickets are already sold out, and tickets for the pre-party are going fast, but there are still other options available. Make sure you get yours before it’s too late! Book now by calling 08700 11 00 34, or head to www.sfxweekender.com/tickets for more information.

* Subject to work commitments.

To celebrate the publication of the 200th issue of SFX, we’ve published our massive 200 Issues Of SFX feature online. And each day the 200th issue is on sale, we’re highlighting some of our favourite articles from that feature (because it’s so massive, gems are easy to miss).

Today, we’re back to issue 153, when news had reached us that Life on Mars was to have spin-off , once again named after another Bowie song, Ashes To Ashes. Which got our Nick thinking…

Yesterday we published our massive 200 Issues Of SFX feature online, to coincide with the publication of the 200th issue of SFX. It’s a treasure trove of archive articles from the mag’s 15 year history, and packed with some really great stuff, demonstrating the breadth and depth (and in some cases unique silliness) of SFX’s coverage. Now, we know some of you will plough your way through the entire lot, but for those not so hardy souls, we’re going to highlight some of our favourite articles to make sure you don’t miss out. And we’re kicking off with this brilliant Ashes To Ashes comic strip from issue 182, written especially for the magazine by the show’s creator Matthew Graham. Click on the image to go to the article. Enjoy.

Misha Collins (http://twitter.com/mishacollins) was flattered and then swiftly annoyed when a bunch of enthusiastic Twitterers started campaigning for a tribute day to the not unattractive Supernatural star: “Thanks for trending #mishasbdayparade,” he Tweeted. “Makes me feel better after Obama suddenly changed his mind about making today a national holiday.” It didn’t last though: ‘It’s also nice to see that Mr Twitter hasn’t lost his Stalinist zeal when it comes to censoring all things misha,” he moaned. “The trend’s been removed!” Shame on you, Twitter.

So, what else have our twinkly SF Twitterers been up to?

• Chuck executive producer Josh Schwartz (http://twitter.com/JoshSchwartz76) was tantalising us with a mysterious image from the next season: “Watch CHUCK Season 4 if you want this photo to make sense!! http://twitpic.com/2gkape” (Over the weekend was the image was showing a lot more, but it seems to have gone a bit squinky at the moment, so keep clicking the link periodically to see if it corrects itself)

• Well, newly devirgined comic writer Jonathan Ross (http://twitter.com/Wossy) revealed the two things that make him proud to be British (please note one of them is rubbish): “I am at Miami airport about to fly home. Bumped into Danny Baker @ check-in and Dr Who is on TV – 2 things that make Britain Great!”

• Ultimates artist Bryan Hitch (http://twitter.com/THEHITCHFACTORY) teased something important: “Great writers, great projects. Marvel, creator owned, non comics, film, TV. I really hope I can spill some news soon. Bursting with news!”

• Edgar Wright (http://twitter.com/edgarwright) told how dull bogus Twitter accounts can be: “One Norwegian paper here quoted from a fake Michael Cera twitter account in an article. The quote? ‘I am Michael Cera and I like muffins’”

• Damon Lindelof (http://twitter.com/DamonLindelof) let slip what exactly his current favourite film is: “Am I seeing Piranha 3D tonight? Yes. Will I need to see it again immediately afterwards to determine whether it was a dream? Again, yes”

• Simon Pegg (http://twitter.com/simonpegg) revealed that Pegg fans should start saving up their money: “That’s it! I have delivered the last few changes and captions on my book. Nerd Do Well goes to print next week and comes out in October”

• And finally Ashes to Ashes man Matthew Graham (http://twitter.com/BarCough) closed his account down with an announcement to go to a new account, which should be full of mouthwatering TV news: “Find us @MonasticProds. So I guess this is BarCough signing off … (Just like when they abandoned the capsule in Apollo 13) farewell BC… ”

So, here they are – over the next few pages, the results of round two of the Big SFX 200 poll! These are the Top 20s in each individual category as you lot voted for them.

And remember there’s still a round to go. The winners of each round are now going forward into The Ultimate Best SF or Fantasy Character Ever poll, which you can vote for by going here.

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26 Medium

Various

Okay, we kick off with a bit of a cheat – since Medium is a series about psychic dreams we could have filled the entire list with examples from numerous episodes, because it so often comes up with brilliantly bat’s-arse imagery. Favourites include the cartoon killer chimps and the faux black and white silent movie. But if we had to pick one, then let’s go for Allison’s dream about how we never die in dreams in “Bite Me” with it’s bewildering array of archive footage and a very odd final twist when Allison apparently wakes up as Vampira for no obvious reason.

25 Doctor Who

“Amy’s Choice”

The third Doctor was a habitual dreamer, but it wasn’t until the Eleventh Doctor arrived that Doctor Who really tackled the subject of dreams full on. Even then, the Time Lord’s tussle with the Dream Lord (his alter ego) was, for the most part, a rather undream-like affair, featuring two interconnected stories that weren’t too far from his normal adventures. Killer OAPs with serpents in their mouths may be bizarre for most of us, but for the Doctor, well, that’s just business as usual. The episode does deserve its place here though, for a couple of wonderful dream-logic moments, including the quite beautiful image of an ice star, and the freaky birdsong that signalled the leap from one dream to another.

SPOILER WARNING: There is a mild spoiler for season three of True Blood on the next page. Click here to skip to the page after next

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Guy Adams is one of the best kept secrets in modern genre fiction. Having made his name on Torchwood with the superb “The House That Jack Built”, he’s moved on to short stories in the Torchwood magazine, books based on Ashes To Ashes, and now his first original novel, The World House. Released through Angry Robot, it’s the story of a house which is the size of a world, the people trapped there and the awful thing that lives in its attic… blogger Alasdair Stuart talked to him about Torchwood, Gene Hunt, his influences and what the future holds for the man who carries the World House in his head.

What fictional characters first hooked you? And why?

Guy Adams: Doctor Who was the bedrock of my escapism, it was — and still is — perfect fuel for a young imagination waiting to explode. It’s infinite and a child relates wonderfully to that. I used to do a passable Peter Davison in the playground, all breathy irritation and fast running.

In comics it was Spider-Man, the geek’s idol — like most comic characters actually, they’re all dysfunctional bed-wetters by day that suddenly bloom into powerful wish-fulfilment figures when they put on the costume.

My young mind always relished scope and fantasy beyond character though, it was only later when in my teens and desperate to become an actor that character became as important. Then it was characters that I wanted to play, always people of extremes, like Ebeneezer Scrooge, Sherlock Holmes or, again, the Doctor. They were the three I always wanted to play. I managed two of them!

You’ve done a lot of work with the Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes characters. Is there anyone who’s easier to write as out of those two casts?

Adams: It was always Gene Hunt really, though I did insert some fictional stuff into the two making-of books I wrote for Simon and Schuster, Gene’s the only character I’ve written to any… I was going to say depth but perhaps that’s the wrong word! It would be slightly different when writing for the show — especially Ashes to Ashes — but on the level I was working he was a comedic cipher really, I was dealing in the two-dimensional aspects of his character. He was a sausage-machine churning out sexism and whisky sweat.

The three books I wrote in character as him were all designed to be utterly humour-led. The first two were policing guides, one in the seventies and then the second shifting to eighties London. The third was the most basic of all, a book supposedly knocked together by his fellow coppers Skelton and Carling that was a collection of all of the Guv’s best quotes. The irony being that over ninety percent of them were original and written by me rather than lifted from the show! Though I still smiled to see the odd review that seemed to think otherwise… People seem to think the shows were packed full of quotable stuff, there’s barely a handful that stand on their own two feet when lifted out of context so I had to make most of it up. It was hellish, like knocking out one-liners for Jim Davidson.

Did you have to make any stylistic changes when Gene and co moved from Manchester to London?

Adams: That was what allowed Transworld and I to develop the second book, there was enough of a variation both in policing methods, location and — to a degree — character that my editor felt there would be enough material to do a second policing guide. They’re very different books, the first all brown paper and coffee stains, the second is crisp white and peppered with eighties graphics. All down to the marvellous Lee Thompson. For my money the best designer working in the business, he goes beyond the call of duty with his work which is why I insisted he share a cover credit on the Simon and Schuster guides, his involvement was just as important as mine. I’m lucky to have worked with him a lot over the last few years. He’s my beautician, as I wander around the world of tie-in like Michael Winner, constantly being doused with pancake and cologne by my staff makeup artist.

Was there anything you’d have liked to do with those books but weren’t able to?

Adams: Not really, I had a great relationship with both editors on those projects and they were always happy to let me stick my neck out. There are always limitations and I wasn’t naive enough to not be aware of that but letting me insert those absurd fictional pieces in the making of books was brave as hell. They followed Lee and I as we became trapped in the world of Life On Mars following a train crash. Some people hated them but I thought it was a fun addition that mirrored the coma-aspect of the show. They culminated in a comic strip where I die and Lee wakes up! In a making-of book! How crazy is that?

For the humour books I will admit that I begin to relish sending the foulest, crudest stuff imaginable to Sarah Emsley, my editor at Transworld. The thing is, Emsley is just as foul and crude as me so she let most of it in! I even had a line about Thatcher masturbating… once they’ve let you do that you can do anything. The final quote in the third book was written knowing damn well it would be cut, it was me just trying to get a rise. It says: “What have I got against women? In an ideal world, nothing but my jiggling balls…” Filthy creature left it in. Now she’s working with Cheryl Cole, so I like to think I’ve prepared her a bit.

Are there plans for any more?

Adams: No. Some thought three was too many — I’ll admit I was unsure before starting the third book and it was a struggle to fill it, it took a lot of one-liners to fill the agreed word count. As it stands though I think they’re all quite good, some bits are funnier than others of course but then if I could churn out fried gold with every line I’d be rich and own Transworld rather than just work for them.

How did you get involved in writing the Torchwood novels?

Adams: It was lots of things coming together at the same time. One of the editors at BBC Books loved The Rules of Modern Policing and wanted to work with Lee and I — albeit on separate projects. Justin Richards, who oversees the Doctor Who range had put my name forward as someone that might suit Torchwood — presumably I’d been seen eating food out of bins or buying a suspiciously large quantity of lubricant. My mate, Mark Morris had been approached to do one and gave my name as another potential writer… all in all, Steve Tribe, the editor, didn’t have much choice but to ask me.

What was the creative process? Did editorial give you carte blanche or did you have to work within restrictions?

Adams: It’s not as restrictive as you might think. And what restrictions do exist are pretty obvious. You know the show, you know the characters and you must stay true to them and not break the whole thing. Someone else has to tell stories with them when you’ve finished.

Having been invited to pitch story ideas, you come up with three or four brief plots and then the preferred choice is selected by BBC Books for you to work up into a full breakdown of about 1500 words. That breakdown is approved by the production office in Cardiff and you get the go ahead to get on with writing the thing properly.

Once done, Steve Tribe reads it, just to make sure you haven’t inserted something silly like Jack turning into a Womble who loves to bugger Flumps, then sends it off for final approval.

What are the challenges of working within the Who universe?

Adams: I suppose it depends on your background. It’s a universe I am so utterly familiar with that it wasn’t difficult for me. Quite the opposite, if you’re a storyteller then you can’t help but formulate ideas for the shows you like, whether you’re ever asked for them or not! That’s not to say that there aren’t all the usual moments of indecision or stress but writing is always full of that, whether dealing with your own characters or someone else’s. Personally, I love that world so much that I would always relish the chance to work in it. I would never want to just do that — I have too many variant ideas for stories I’d like to tell — but if I got the call again then I would say yes without a moment’s thought. I’m at home there, I’ve lived in it since I was very young.

Were there any characters you found yourself viewing differently having written them?

Adams: I had more time for Jack once writing about him. Of the three main leads he had been the one to interest me the least — which is strange given the scope that lies in the character I suppose. The way my story developed though it was clear that he needed to be the dominant character and I found that much more of a pleasure than I had expected.

A lazy writer might write Jack off as a two-dimensional Errol Flynn. A grinning sex organ with access to buckets of hair gel. Either that or get bogged down in the sort of ‘immortal angst’ that kept Highlander going for years. In truth, like all characters, he’s a mixture of lots of conflicting details, it’s that conflict that makes people interesting. Lazy writing points towards stereotyping but it’s boring to write and boring to read. Real people are funny, depressed, good and repugnant, all on a daily basis.

Was there anything you’d have liked to have done but were told not to?

Adams: I got a bit carried away with techno-porn which had to be trimmed back. A new Hub entrance in particular which led you up from a sub-basement level going past several disused floors. One of the rooms seen en-route contained a colossal brass horn — like you would find on an old gramophone but immeasurably bigger — that pointed at a small wooden chair. This was described as Madame Blavatsky’s Mind Trumpet… a Victorian device for projecting your thoughts. Tribe understandably told me to go and take a cold shower and then remove it!

Tell us about the short stories the Torchwood magazine is running, what are the challenges of telling a story in such a short space?

Adams: I actually find short stories exceptionally difficult. 4,000 words — which is the limit — is nothing, a tiny, tiny stage on which to play out a drama. The piece I’ve just done came in at over 6,000 words once I’d finished and then I had to hack at it like a demon. It’s my own fault, I picked an idea that was too big for the space. They’ve asked me for another one — which was lucky considering, I’m not sure I would have done in their position! — and hopefully I’ve learned from the experience.

The trick is to think of an idea that works with that word count, something that’s rich enough to be worth someone’s time to read but compressed enough that you don’t end up writing something that reads like a synopsis, all event and no character, no rhythm or shape.

What was nice on a personal level is that I recently met my brother, Max for the first time. His daughter is a huge fan of Doctor Who and Torchwood, I mean, really, she’s as bad as me! So the story I wrote features her as the main character, just because I would have loved someone to do that for me when I was her age. Obviously I had to put the story first, otherwise it would have been far too self-indulgent, but I wanted to tell a story about Torchwood — Captain Jack in particular — viewed from the outside so it was as easy to make her the focal character as anyone else. She was utterly shell-shocked, which is wonderful. I’m a soppy arse…

Thanks Guy.

This interview was conducted by blogger Alasdair Stuart. Read more about Guy Adams at his official website.

WARNING: ASSUMES YOU’VE SEEN THE END OF LOST AND THE END OF ASHES TO ASHES – SPOILERS!

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In the space of the last week two iconic TV shows have not only ended but ended in the same place: Purgatory. For Ashes To Ashes, Purgatory was 1980s London, filled with good suits, awful hair and the palpable sense of gleeful doom that pervaded the period. The Happy Hunting Grounds of the Met, presided over by DCI Gene Hunt, were grim, filled with violence and horror and, somehow, still strangely attractive – even friendly.

On the other side of the Atlantic, Lost closed with the reveal that the “sideways universe” stories, apparently caused by Jack and co detonating the nuclear bomb at the end of the last season, was, in fact, Purgatory – a representation of 2004 Los Angeles created by all their minds in which each of them gradually came together, remembered who they had been, who they had loved and what they had done and then, finally, were able to move on. The same idea, in essence, presented in two entirely different ways.

So why was one so much more well received than the other? The Ashes To Ashes finale, whilst garnering some snotty reviews, has been largely embraced by fans, even without a return from DI Sam Tyler. In contrast, Lost has been pilloried up and down and left and right as journalists and fans unite to criticise the sudden left turn of the back 15 minutes, the apparent overwriting of the last six years of continuity and the clear implication the entire series was a dream and they’ve been dead all along.

Well, some of the problem with the Lost finale stems from the fact that the show, in the end, focussed on the characters. It was always a series about small scale, personal stories unfolding against a vast canvas and that vast canvas, for better or worse, is done the moment Jack’s eye closes in what is a truly beautiful, symmetrical final shot. The good news is though that, as Christian Shepard makes fairly clear in the final scene, everything on the island happened. Sawyer dragged himself back to redemption, Jin and Sun found each other and died together, Charlie laid down his life to warn Desmond about who the boat was really from and Hurley genuinely was that nice. Each one of these people, heroes and villains, rationalists and visionaries finds themselves tied together through bonds that can never be undone, survivors in the most literal sense. Iconic as the line is, “live together, die alone” is only two thirds of the truth. Perhaps it should read “live together, die alone, move on together.”

This is the crux of the problem many people had with the Lost finale: that, in the end, the epic canvas was reduced to a man putting a plug of rock back into the ground, slowly dying and being rewarded by spending eternity with the last friends on Earth he expected to make. Those friendships and the ways they changed each person involved were what the show was truly about and the only thing that remained constant through the exploration of the Others, the truth about the Dharma Initiative, the time travel and the final, controversial revelations about both Jacob and the Smoke Monster. In the end, Lost fell victim to it’s own success for some people, became so mired in its intricate, layered continuity that it became almost impossible to get to the heart of the story, a heart which never changed; the survivors themselves.

Ashes To Ashes approached Purgatory differently, almost as a Valhalla for police officers. The revelations were no less Earth-shaking but, somehow, seemed smaller, more pragmatic for being set on this side of the Atlantic. The fact that Gene Hunt was a dead young man obsessed with Gary Cooper and with enough will to drag himself back to a version of life is, in the end, as irrelevant as the circumstances of Chris, Shaz and Ray’s death or Alex’s struggle to return to her daughter. They’re all dead, but unlike the Oceanic 815 survivors, they all end the show with a pretty good idea of how they got there as well as the closure they need to move on. There’s a touching logic to their world; close a big case, go to the pub, get promoted and move on to a better which is oddly reassuring. No one gets left behind, everyone gets a second chance.

What really unites the two shows though is how oddly reassuring their endings are. The two casts respectively feature a police officer who’s committed murder, another who passed information to a known criminal, a con man and murderer, an escaped fugitive and a desperate visionary whose dead body is ridden by the embodiment of evil. Almost all of them do awful things, almost all of them make horrible mistakes and each of them, without exception, gets at least within sight of redemption. None of them have it easy but all of them, in the end, get to move on to something else, something better. Like the man says, they all get to be heroes, just for one day and if they can manage it, surely we can too.

So if you find yourself standing in a pub, with David Bowie playing and a smiling bartender asking what you’ll have, don’t worry. Just get them in for the police officers arguing about crisps in the corner and the group of American tourists and listen to their stories. It’s worth it, all the way to the end.

This is a personal article by Alasdair Stuart, one of our site contributors. Your thoughts on Lost and Ashes are welcome as always, in the comment thread below or on our forum.

So it’s all over. The Quattro is trashed, Gene Hunt’s cosmic secret is revealed and The Railway Arms is officially the greatest boozer in the universe. Time to talk exclusively to Ashes To Ashes co-creator Matthew Graham about the revelatory conclusion to the saga of the Gene Genie…

SFX: How much pressure did you feel to deliver a satisfying ending – and is that ever a healthy pressure for the creative process?

Matthew Graham: “A huge amount of pressure to deliver a satisfying ending – and to be satisfying emotionally was our main concern. There are two things that go on with Ashes and its fans: one, the actual mystery that we’re interested in, which is a few quite simple questions – who is Gene Hunt? What is this world? Are Ray, Chris and Shaz invested in the same way, or in a different way, to Alex? And is Alex going to get home? And the extra question we add in series three is ‘Who’s Jim Keats, and what’s his agenda?’ And those are the only things that we’ve ever fully concerned ourselves with, apart from how it all ties in with the Sam Tyler story, of course.

“But then there’s this whole other layer of things that we were planting not as red herrings necessarily, but as fun little things that don’t really go anywhere. And the fans extrapolate all sorts of extra mysteries on top of that. I’ve been through the stage – and I’m out the other side now – of being worried that we were underselling the answers in the last episode. My worry was that people were going to say ‘But there was so much more that I imagined, so many more clues and mysteries that I was convinced were going to be important – you’ve sold me short.’ That was my worry. But what I felt very strongly was that we were writing for a very big audience, a very broad audience, and we weren’t writing a niche fan show. It’s not a cult show.

“And so it was really important that the big questions were answered, and that the whole thing had a satisfying conclusion. But I now look at it and I think well, there are things in there that people maybe aren’t expecting, like the fact that Gene is only 22 years old, which I’m hoping will still come as a surprise. And even though people may suspect that Keats is evil, when you actually see him unmasked he’s so bonkers, so clearly hellish and mad that it surprises you. So yes, there was pressure, and I was writing with that in mind to some degree. But when you start writing you stop feeling scared. That nervousness just seems to go away, like stage fright. You just get on with what you want to do.”

So did you follow any of those crazy fan theories, and did they feed back in any way into your vision of the show?

“I tried not to go onto the fan forums. We did during Life On Mars a bit, but as Ashes picked up a head of steam round about series two Ashley [Pharoah, co-creator] and I stopped going into those places, partly because I don’t think it’s helpful for us to be there. I don’t think it does us any favours. And it’s a clamour of ideas from all sorts of places, often posted by very young people who are very passionate but not very articulate, so you end up misreading a lot of what you’re reading. People will say things like ‘Why can’t Alex just kiss Gene?!’ and you can misread that as someone being aggressively critical, when actually they’re just being excited. It doesn’t help us, and when you then feel the need to respond in those fan sites it doesn’t help them. Because then they feel they’re being monitored and observed. They think they want you there, and initially they’re very excited that you are there, but then very quickly they’re not, and very quickly they’re a bit intimidated. So I’ve kept out of them to a large degree, but yes, some of the more extreme theories have filtered through. It sounds patronising, but to those people I would tend to say ‘You don’t know what’s good for you. You think you want something that extreme, but I don’t think you do, because when it arrives it would seem very strange and unsatisfying.’ An example would be the end of the US Life On Mars. Have you seen it? It beggars belief, doesn’t it?”

Did you keep your ending secret from the people making that American version?

“Yes, we did! We talked generally with them about what we were trying to do, and what we felt the world was. We told them that we thought the world was an afterlife, a purgatory for coppers. They thought that wasn’t extreme enough. It tickled their fancy, but they said ‘Oh guys, we’ve got something more extreme than that – we’ve got something that will blow you away! You’ll never see it coming!’ So we thought ‘How exciting, but just to sound a note of caution, endings that you never see coming are not necessarily good endings.’ I think the point about the ending of Ashes is that you should be able to see it coming. If you don’t, that’s fine, but it’s not out of nowhere – everything is building to this, rather than us coming up with something and going ‘Hey-hey, you never knew this, but Gene is a Martian!’ And that was their mistake, I think.”

I guess it should be like one of those really great episodes of The Twilight Zone, where you slowly begin to suspect the shape of this world…

“Yes, I think that’s better. And the best M Night Shyamalan films are based around that. And the worst ones aren’t.”

So when you created Life On Mars did you have a long-term gameplan in mind? And is this the ending you always had planned?

“Bits of it are. When we got to the end of Mars we planned to do a third series, as you know. In the third series of Mars we would see Sam realising that he was dead – he knows he’s dead at the end of series two, but in series three he would start to believe that he could cheat a final death. He thinks that’s Heaven, and gradually it would dawn on him that this wasn’t Heaven. So it was going to be all the back story that we have in Ashes, of Sam saying ‘I don’t want to leave here’, and we would learn more about Gene, that Gene was actually this young copper. Because we were never able to do that third series, when we came to Ashes we thought let’s start again, let’s not rush to get to that conclusion. Obviously the BBC didn’t want just one series of Ashes, so we said right upfront to the Beeb we’d like to do three series – we’d like to start frivolous, and get darker as we go. And, amazingly, they said ok, let’s give it a go. And luckily the first series did well enough to get a second series and so on, so we were able to do that.

“The only thing that came in completely brand new was Keats – I created Jim Keats just for episode one, just to tie up the whole idea that Gene could shoot someone, go on the run and then just walk back in and say ‘Right, I’m picking up where I left off.’ And I thought it would be quite fun to do a story-of-the-week with a Guy Pearce LA Confidential type character who Gene runs rings around. Maybe tie that up as a little sub-story at the end of episode two. And I wrote the script like that. But then we talked about the problem of what we felt was missing in series three that made it different. And we all agreed that we missed the motor of a Supermac [the corrupt copper in series two], we missed a character who was an on-site regular nemesis, who wasn’t part of the gang but who added something. So I came up with the idea of what if Jim Keats says ‘I’m going to stick around’? Then we started talking more about Jim and we thought oh, let’s just do it. Let’s just make him the Anti-Christ or the Devil and make him evil. And he’s going to try and take Ray, Chris and Shaz and even Alex away from Gene. So that suddenly gave the series a massive engine that it needed. And it gave us the shape of the series, so it meant we could start focusing on the other characters and get to know them more.”

When the characters saw stars you did seem to be teasing us that they were going to be in space, on a ‘gene hunt’, just like the American show. Was that just you being completely evil?

“[laughs] There was a line in episode five where Ray sees the stars and he says ‘It’s like we’re some kind of astronauts’ – and I remember telling you that there’s a line coming up that will send your blood cold! And I knew there would be a group of people out there going ‘Oh no, f—! Please don’t do that!’ And so when that line went in it was very much a cheeky ‘let’s worry people’ bit!”

How did the cast respond when you broke the revelation to them? Was it a hard sell to Philip Glenister, for instance?

“No, I don’t think it was. Actors never mind being told that they represent the gateway to eternity! And they never mind being told that they’re playing Satan… It was fine with Keeley and Phil and the others, because they’d all been trying to work out where it was going themselves. And we were pleased that they all liked it but were also surprised, and that they hadn’t extrapolated that ending for themselves. So that gave us encouragement. With Danny [Mays, alias Jim Keats], we took him to one side before filming and said ‘You’re going to be on the subs bench quite a lot in this series, and there’s a reason for that, because somewhere around the second half of the run you’re going to start revealing your hand. By the end of the series you’re going to be beating the shit out of Gene, and you’re going to be evil incarnate.’ And he said ‘Great, bring it on – that’s all I need to know.’”

So why was Gene required to play his role?

“Why is he the gatekeeper for coppers? What the script tries to imply, without being too explicit – because I think if you become too explicit it starts to become naff – is that he’s kind of taken the role on himself. He’s not consciously taking on a role. He didn’t appear in the world and say ‘I am a guardian of coppers’. It was his sheer will as a young man, cut down in his prime, with these visions of Gary Cooper in his head. I reckon the whole world works on Gene Hunt time, so he arrives in an alternate 1953, and immediately realises he didn’t look like that little boy, he looked like Gene Hunt. And he accepted that, but didn’t know why he looked like that, didn’t know what he was. But he realised that coppers were coming through his door, troubled and angsty and with issues, and he would slap ‘em around and wipe their noses and put them in line. And at some point they would all do a job, and these coppers would be in a good place, and he would pack them off into the pub and they would… go. But over the years he forgot that; it just became how he was. It became his life. So it’s not really a conscious thing. We have these conversations. We wondered ‘Does Gene go off into a room on his own and talk to God?’ And we thought no, he doesn’t do any of that. The cosmos is far bigger and more mysterious than anything even Gene Hunt can imagine.”

He doesn’t get God up against the filing cabinets, then…

“That would be a great scene, wouldn’t it? God against the wall! ‘This is how it shakes down, God!’ So yeah, he just doesn’t know. He does what he does. And I also imagine that if you had two more episodes after the end of Ashes, by the end of that second episode he’d talk about Alex, and Ray and Chris, he’d refer to them, but he would almost have forgotten that last scene in Ashes outside the Railway Arms ever took place.”

We hear Keats speaking to someone called ‘Dave’. I’ve already told you my theory that it’s David Bowie…

“You were right – he does say ‘Dave!’ It’s an ad lib! I thought ‘Nick’s right!’ I went back and looked at it. I thought ‘He was obviously pretty sure he heard the word Dave’, but I looked at the script and thought ‘There’s no Dave in here’. And then I watched it and he says Dave! The Devil’s called Dave! Keats is the Anti-Christ so he is on the phone to Satan. But that’s just for my own amusement rather than something explicit.”

The Devil is David Bowie…

“The Devil must be David Bowie!”

Has Bowie ever been in touch with you about the show?

“Not with me personally. We got contacted by one of his legal people, but that was in response to us asking whether we could use Ashes To Ashes, that was all. Apparently it was all quite guarded – ‘David’s fine about that, he can see that the first show went well.’ So that’s all that I know. David believes the first show went well!”

And then you turned him into the Devil.

“Yeah, he’ll love us for that! [laughs] I don’t think he’ll mind…”

You have a clip from Dixon Of Dock Green right at the end of the episode. Dixon’s another character who was killed on screen and then resurrected. Is that reading too much into that choice of clip?

“No, no, that’s right. I liked the idea that Dixon died and came back. To start with it wasn’t that – it was only when I sat and thought about it that I realised there are actual parallels here. But originally what I was trying to do was touch on the timelessness of coppers. It was a ‘60s clip but it feels like a clip from Gene’s original time. It feels like it could be the ‘50s. It’s also the kind of copper that we all hope to meet. It embodies the ideal of policemen, experienced and wise and just. And it’s also just a charming little poetic indulgence as well! But then when I thought about it a bit more I thought well, actually, he died in The Blue Lamp, didn’t he? And then he emerged again… Maybe the whole of Dixon Of Dock Green was an afterlife!”

Maybe Z-Cars as well…

“Exactly! Softly Softly…”

Juliet Bravo…

“Every BBC cop show actually takes place in an alternate reality!”

So what part do pop songs play in this purgatory? You’ve got Keats talking about listening to Club Tropicana forever. Are they more than just a soundtrack?

“For us they’re dramatic devices – they’re good, easy ways of making you feel nostalgic or for injecting a bit of emotion. Certainly in episode 8 there was precious little room for pop music. Yes, Hell could be an eternal Club Tropicana. And that is the point of that joke. And then using Phil Collins’ In The Air Tonight… we originally had that laid much further over the whole sequence on the farm, but we realised that the longer you keep that track going the more you are desperately waiting for the ‘duh-dum-duh-dum-duh-dum’ with the drums kicking in! And it becomes an obssession! You don’t care about Alex or Gene or a scarecrow or anything else, you just care about when you’re going to hear those drums! And so we had to pull it right back. It’s been a bit harder with the music in this series. I think the drama has taken over and we haven’t needed the music so much in the last couple of episodes.”

But the songs themselves don’t play any deeper role in the cosmos that you’ve created?

“No, no. I don’t think so. Except I really do like to imagine that when we die we still get access to music. It would be pretty tedious if we didn’t.”

Alex has a memory of Gene holding her hand in the real world. How does that fit with the whole purgatory thing?

“I could come up with a very, very complicated answer to that question, but I would say it’s probably an orphan idea. When we originally had that idea at the end of series one, we obviously knew the big, metaphysical building block. I said ‘Look, when Alex was a kid, Gene was already long dead – in 1981 Gene had already been dead for almost 30 years’. So I don’t mind the idea that somehow she has this image in her mind of a guardian angel or a man that has held her hand. That was probably a different person, an actual copper, but now she’s remembered it as Gene Hunt, and maybe in some strange way that’s her premonition of Gene’s role as a guide and a guardian. It’s a symbolic truth. We thought about it at the time – should we do it, and do we need to tie it up, because it does imply proper time travel, or flitting between dimensions, which we certainly didn’t want to do. So we said ‘Look, it’s too nice, let’s just have it because it’s nice and it’s emotional. And then if we can find a way of building it into the mystery, brilliant. If we can’t then it’ll have to remain as a slightly orphan idea, for people to pick over for years to come.’”

Is there a part of you that doesn’t actually want to explain too much?

“Yes, definitely. The only time the word ‘dead’ is used is when Shaz says ‘I’m wearing a dead woman’s clothes, it seems appropriate’. No one says ‘I’m dead’. No one says ‘So when I go through those doors I’m going to go to Heaven’. We don’t actually know that’s where they’re going, and they might be eternally sitting in the pub! It might be Nelson’s domain. Who knows? And we don’t really know where Gene’s going to end up. One of the fans sent me an email saying ‘Everyone’s telling me that everything’s going to be tied up at the end – please don’t tie everything up, leave us with something to invent for ourselves…’ And I thought that was a very wise thing to say, because you have to have those mysteries, don’t you? And also, just because people are operating on the cosmic plane doesn’t mean that they know everything. There’s no reason to assume that if there is another world beyond this that we’re going to know any more about the way the cosmos runs when we get there than we do now! So I felt like we could afford to keep some mystery. Some people will see that as laziness. I’m sure some people will say oh, they couldn’t be bothered to actually work it out. But what characters in what dramas really know everything that’s going on?”

You don’t want to tie that bow too neatly, then?

“I don’t think so, no. The important thing is that there’s some sort of emotional closure. I hope there is, anyway.”

Did you think about getting Sam back?

“Yeah, we talked about bringing Sam back. Partly we were worried about being a hostage to John [Simm] saying yes or no… We might have got a whole storyline around it and then he might have got cold feet. We also thought that bringing Sam back might undermine Alex, might undermine the whole of Ashes To Ashes. And of course he’s dead. And our logic has said ‘He’s gone into The Railway Arms and he’s presumably moved on to Heaven.’ What are we saying? That he can come out again? How does that work?”

He could have just nipped out for a fag…

“Yeah, because it’s bound to be non-smoking up there! [laughs] So in the end we thought we’d use Nelson. Because we did always want Nelson to be a spirit guide, a guardian, a keeper of the knowledge. And so it felt right that Nelson stepped out of the pub.”

Do you think you’ll ever be tempted to revisit these characters or is this very much a full stop?

“In television terms it is definitely a full stop. I think… I should never say never. One day you’ll probably be reminding me of this! But in television terms, there is no sequel to Ashes To Ashes. I think it would be really hard to go on with Gene now. I suppose you could tell the story of Gene’s redemption, of how Gene finds peace and goes into the pub, but I’m not sure that would be as interesting, somehow. And the stories I’ve always loved from being a kid are stories that have left their central character with a burden to bear – not an ending where they all change, but an ending where someone is a constant in it. I totally lost interest in The Lord Of The Rings once they’d all got back home. I thought ‘I don’t care!’ And so that was why we left Gene there. Though there is a fake Ashley Pharoah document out there, written by him, but as a joke to upset the BBC, called The Laughing Gnome. And he says ‘We’ve got one more Bowie in us…’ He did the whole title page and copyrighted it and everything. It’s a series bible – but it’s all blank pages – and we landed it on a few desks for a bit of laugh…”

How did they react?

“They said ‘Yeah, it’s commissioned!’”

Episode 3.08

Writer Matthew Graham
Director David Drury

THE ONE WHERE Alex finally discovers the truth about Gene Hunt and why she is back in the ‘80s.

VERDICT So, the Ashes universe is at last explained: it is purgatory, the place where the dead pass through before going on to what is presumably Heaven. Chris was shot dead, Shaz was stabbed, Ray hung himself and, well, we know how Alex died. Gene is an angel who helps them pass successfully to the other side by helping them achieve redemption, while Keats is a devil who wants to entice them into Hell. That’s my interpretation of it anyway. And written down like that, I must admit it doesn’t sound very good.
But it is a good finale, although it is quite a depressing and unsettling one. Those full-of-life, wonderful characters were just walking corpses all along. Alex will never see her daughter again (although in the “after life” she presumably will), Alex and Gene will never get together and Sam Tyler is gone forever too. Sadly no John Simm cameo here.
By the end you realise why this third series had been so much glummer than its predecessors – it had to be, because an upbeat seven episodes followed by this downbeat eighth one would have been weird. Even the It’s A Knockout section at the start of the ep, which would have been very funny placed at other points in the Mars/Ashes run, is here tinged with doom.

As someone who’s seen every single Mars/Ashes instalment I spent a lot of this one with a furrowed brow, a little confused and mildly disgruntled about what was going on (my notes include the scrawled exclamation made half way through, “They’re all DEAD…?”). I can only imagine what others who haven’t seen much of it would think. As Keeley Hawes said in SFX a few months ago, it’s bonkers and a lot of people are not going to “get” the conclusion, and I’d add that a lot of people won’t like it either. But then wrapping up this series was always going to be difficult, because there were so many elements in it, and so many red herrings (we now know, for instance, that the guy who said he was Sam Tyler, wasn’t).

Overall I reckon this wasn’t as good a final episode as the final episode of Life On Mars, but then it wasn’t as good a series as Life On Mars. It was enormously watchable but not as consistent, and the high points weren’t as high. Some might complain that it was stretched out to three series, where two might have been better, but I’d counter that it was wise to give as much exposure as possible to the greatest TV character created in the last ten years: the mighty Gene Hunt.

GENE’S GIFT OF THE GAB “Let’s get our garlic-munching friends to put their horse burgers down and put tabs on who’s active.” Then, near the end: “My real name is Nigel Perkins. No I’m joking, it’s Gene Hunt.” Plus, to a Dutch crim: “I’m arresting you for murdering my car, you dyke-digging tosspot.”

BACK TO THE ‘80S Odd little snippets of things: the aforementioned It’s A Knockout, a mention of Arthur C Clarke’s Mysterious World, Keats saying he likes Betamax because he’s “a sucker for quality”, a little “Tainted Love”, “Beat It”, “Club Tropicana” and “In The Air Tonight” and a questionable few bars from “Chariots Of Fire”. And, strangely, from the ‘90s Oasis’s “Wonderwall”, and from the ‘50s, Dixon Of Dock Green! (Interestingly, Dixon was another cop who was brought back from the dead – he died in 1949 film The Blue Lamp but was resurrected for the BBC TV series.)

DID YOU SPOT? When Keats is driving he says he could listen to “Club Tropicana” forever – a nod to his idea of Hell, but also maybe a clue that this metaphysical realm is in some way linked to ’70s/’80s pop music in a way that we don’t understand!

NITPICK Chris talks about “health and safety” and although it was a 1974 Act of Parliament that first married these two words to each other, you could argue that the phrase didn’t properly enter the public consciousness until the ‘90s.

STAR TURN A great performance in particular from Dean Andrews when he discovers the truth of his death.

TRIVIA And the last ever line of Ashes To Ashes is Gene’s “A word in your shell-like, pal,” to the latest cop from the future to enter his office.

BEST LINES
Alex: “This is a message.”
Gene: “What are you muttering about through your lipstick, woman?”
Alex: “These pieces of quartz were placed in their mouths to make an ironic point.”
Gene: “Well you better get on the blower to the Ironic Crimes Division hadn’t you?”

It’s the end of an era tonight, with the final ever episode of Ashes To Ashes hitting BBC1 at 9pm. Will it reveal everything? Will it reveal anything? Is Alex mad, in a coma, or on a spaceship? By 10pm today you’ll know. Or not know. Or be totally dazed. Or something.

And you can also pop back here tonight after the show has aired for a little bit of an Ashes To Ashes celebration. Not only will we have a review of the final episode (yep, we’ve seen it, but we’re saying nothing) going live right after the episode finishes, but we’ll have an all-new, exclusive interview with series co-creator and writer Matthew Graham talking about the momentous events you’ll have just witnessed – that goes live at midnight (people who saw this story yesterday please note time change for this). And, of course, you can chat/debate/argue to your hearts’ content about what it all means in the Ashes To Ashes forum thread.

Don’t miss out!

MONDAY 17 MAY

• True Blood’s only just finished on FX, and now you can buy the second season on DVD and Blu-ray. Not your bag? Why not check out Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise doing Philip K Dick as Minority Report makes its hi-def debut.
• FlashForward continues on Five at 9pm (enjoy it while you can!), while CBBC’s futuristic gameshow Mission: 2110 is on CBBC at 5.45pm.

TUESDAY 18 MAY

• Loads of SF TV tonight, with Stargate Universe on Sky 1 at 8pm, The Vampire Diaries on ITV2 at 9pm, Fringe on Sky1 at 10pm, and V on Syfy at 10pm.

WEDNESDAY 19 MAY

• See what the Winchester brothers are up to as Supernatural continues on Living at 9pm.

THURSDAY 20 MAY

• Legend Of The Seeker continues on Syfy at 8pm. It’s followed at 10pm by a double bill of the woeful Painkiller Jane. Warehouse 13 is on Virgin 1 at 9pm.
• FlashForward creator Robert J Sawyer asks you to Watch, Scarlett Thomas invites you to Our Tragic Universe, and John Meaney has a nasty case of Absorption. The connection? They’re all in bookshops today.
• Loads of signings at London’s Forbidden Planet today: there’s a triple bill of authors, with China Mieville, Mark Charan Newton and Adam Nevill, while Chris Claremont keeps the comics end up.

FRIDAY 21 MAY

• SEASON FINALE! It’s the last ever Ashes To Ashes on BBC One at 9pm.
• Lost isn’t too far behind on Sky1 – it’s the penultimate week of the show. To celebrate, stick with Sky1 for a couple of documentaries about the show.
• Donnie Darko kid Jake Gyllenhaal turns action hero in big-budget videogame adap Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time. You probably won’t be quite so fussed about Heartless, which is also in cinemas.

SATURDAY 22 MAY

• It’s “The Hungry Earth, the first half of a Silurian two-parter in Doctor Who on BBC One at 6.15pm. Confidential follows as ever.
• It’s the Bristol International Comic & Small Press Expo. Most informative title ever. 
• Learn How To Survive A Zombie Apocalypse in Chorley.
• Celebrate 30 years of The Empire Strikes Back at The Garrison Strikes Back at the National Space Centre in Leicester.

SUNDAY 16 MAY

• It’s your sci-fi rest day. Use it wisely.

Got an event you’d like to see in SFX’s listings? Drop us a line at sfxevents@futurenet.co.uk.

As the Conservative-Liberal Coalition gets underway, David Cameron shunned the news media’s questions on what he thought of the cancellation of Heroes. Zachary Quinto wasn’t quite so media shy: “Wait a minute,” the Man Who Was Sylar Tweeted, “Heroes is cancelled. Why didn’t anybody tell me? Kidding of course. Some thoughts – if you care. http://tinyurl.com/23gc7ww”. His fellow Hero Greg Grunberg was equally shocked: “I’m hearing The FAT LADY singing her ass off!!!” he Twittered, following it up with: “Gettin’ calls from Cast & Crew. An amazing group I was fortunate enough to work w/ on #Heroes. 4 great seasons. 100s of friends 4 life.” We’ll miss you, Heroes. It was… meaningful.

Another show about to come to an end (albeit one that got to choose the time of its passing) is Ashes To Ashes and writer/creator Matthew Graham was last week getting excited about the forthcoming BAFTAs and its possible awards showering for him and his fellow Ashes scribe Ashley Pharoah: “Best Curly-Haired Writer. Tallest Writer In A Returning Drama. Best Use Of A German Car In Television. We will clean up.” Later: “Word on the street is that the BAFTA judges thought our show was crappy and that Ash was too ugly to appear on television in a suit.” Well, SFX loves you both…

So what else have our SF Twitterers been up to? We got a glimpse into the domestic life of Mr Simon Pegg on Twitter last week (not that there was much mystery about that): “Dogs, poo, dog poo, foxes, snakes, Twilight, Monkey Music, Lost, balls, word count, babies, Wiggles, jet bikes, Crouch End, Mythbusters etc.”; Damon Lindelof revealed the Lost/Trek guys had received a fan letter from George Lucas: “George Lucas’ letter to us made me feel like I was staring into the twin suns of Tatooine all over again. My life is complete”; Mark Millar achieved a long-held dream of being interviewed by Kirsty Wark: “Had a good laugh on The Review Show last night. Had mad crush on Kirsty Wark when I was at uni. My pals in pub all jealous”; Bryan Hitch hinted at a possible new design project: “I got to redesign Dr Who; I got to redesign Star Trek; now I get a chance to redesign…”; Brent Spiner’s been rewatching his old show: “I’m watching Star Trek: The Next Generation on BBCA… why wasn’t it dubbed with British accents? Patrick and Marina were!”; and Greg Grunberg found himself short-changed by the new V remake: “Bummed to find out the V in the show V does NOT stand for VAGINA. That’s the whole reason I was watching!”

MONDAY 10 MAY

• Join SFX and some top authors at Waterstone’s Piccadilly for our big Summer Of SF Reading bash.
• The whole of Battlestar Galactica comes to Blu-ray, along with disappointing spin-off movie The Plan. Where The Wild Things Are is also out on DVD and Blu-ray.
• CBBC’s epic new sci-fi gameshow Mission: 2110 continues at 5.45pm. (It’s also on on Tuesday and Wednesday.)
• FlashForward continues on Five at 9pm.
• Learn How To Survive A Zombie Apocalypse in Liverpool.

TUESDAY 11 MAY

• Loads of SF TV tonight, with Stargate Universe on Sky 1 at 8pm, The Vampire Diaries on ITV2 at 9pm, Fringe on Sky1 at 10pm, and V on Syfy at 10pm.

WEDNESDAY 12 MAY

• It’s another Supernatural Wednesday on Living at 9pm.
• Cory Doctorow’s For The Win goes FTW in bookshops.
• Clarke Award-winner China Miéville signs Kraken at Newcastle’s Forbidden Planet.

THURSDAY 13 MAY

• Legend Of The Seeker continues on Syfy at 8pm. It’s followed at 10pm by a double bill of the woeful Painkiller Jane.
• Stephen Deas, MD Lachlan, John Meaney, Sarah Pinborough and Adam Roberts come to London’s Forbidden Planet Megastore for a bit of signing.

FRIDAY 14 MAY

• SEASON FINALE! The second season of True Blood wraps up at 10pm on FX, where the vampire vibe will continue with ace movie Let The Right One In. You should also tune your telly to Lost on Sky1 and Ashes To Ashes on BBC One. They’re both on at 9pm.
• Go Supernatural for three days at Asylum 4 in Birmingham.

SATURDAY 15 MAY

• Forget that Andrew Lloyd Webber nonsense. It’s all about Doctor Who on BBC One at 6.25pm. You can also catch The Prisoner on ITV1 at 9pm.

SUNDAY 16 MAY

• It’s your sci-fi rest day. Use it wisely.

Got an event you’d like to see in SFX’s listings? Drop us a line at sfxevents@futurenet.co.uk.

MONDAY 3 MAY

• Warning! Warning! Don’t go to work – it’s a bank holiday.
• Patrick Ness’s latest Chaos Walking novel, Monsters Of Men, storms into bookshops.
• The Prisoner remake escapes from its shackles to arrive on DVD.
• SERIES PREMIERE! CBBC’s epic new sci-fi gameshow Mission: 2110 launches at 5.50pm.
• FlashForward continues on Five at 9pm.

TUESDAY 4 MAY

• It’s Star Wars day, so, er, May the Fourth be with you. Ahem…
• Celebrate with a bunch of SF TV, including Stargate Universe on Sky 1 at 8pm, The Vampire Diaries on ITV2 at 9pm, Fringe on Sky1 at 10pm, and V on Syfy at 10pm.

WEDNESDAY 5 MAY

• Grab yourself a copy of the brand new, Terry Pratchett guest-edited SFX 196. It’s on sale today.
• Catch up with what the Winchesters are up to in Supernatural on Living at 9pm.

THURSDAY 6 MAY

• BBC Audiobooks releases Daleks: Mission To The Unknown, a reading of the first half of the novelisation of William Hartnell epic The Daleks’ Master Plan.
• Tom Holt’s Blonde Bombshell, Jim Bob’s Storage Stories and Trudi Canavan’s The Ambassador’s Mission (much better than the ambassador’s receptions, we believe) land in bookshops.
• SEASON PREMIERE! Painkiller Jane gets its UK debut courtesy of Syfy at 10pm. We suggest you avoid it – it really is a stinker. Legend Of The Seeker is also on Syfy at 8pm.

FRIDAY 7 MAY

• A good night to stay in: Ashes To Ashes is on BBC One at 9pm, Lost is on Sky1 at 9pm and True Blood is on FX at 10pm.
• Clarke Award winner China Miéville’s Kraken wakes in UK bookshops. There’s an exclusive interview about the book  in the new SFX.
• Time for some slash fiction, as Freddy gets rebooted in A Nightmare On Elm Street, on the big screen from today. Hot Tub Time Machine is also out.
• It’s all about Battlestar Galactica and Dollhouse for three days at Echo 1 in Heathrow.

SATURDAY 8 MAY

• Doctor Who continues with “Vampires Of Venice” on BBC One at 6pm. Doctor Who Confidential follows on BBC Three at 7pm, while The Prisoner is on ITV1 at 9pm.
• A couple of signings at London’s Forbidden Planet: former Carter: The Unstoppable Sex Machine frontman Jim Bob signs his new book, Storage Stories, while comic writer Peter Milligan is in town for his Greek Street. Coincidentally, there’s an interview with Milligan in the new SFX.

SUNDAY 9 MAY

• Not much to see here, so why not pick up SFX‘s Lost Special. It’s on sale now.

Got an event you’d like to see in SFX’s listings? Drop us a line at sfxevents@futurenet.co.uk.

MOST UNCONVINCING SET-UP FOR A GAG OF THE WEEK

Okay, the gag in Ashes To Ashes revealing the truth about who vandalised the Blue Peter garden was brilliant. But dear lord, wasn’t the set-up a little, well, desperate? Can anybody explain why Chris lobbed that can of oil over the wall – or, indeed, why he took it out of the car and carted it with him while chasing a villain on foot – other than because they somehow needed to explain how the fish pond became polluted? And why did nobody follow Gene over the wall? And how come that guy they were chasing’s nylon jogging pants didn’t burst into flames from the sheer friction of his thighs rubbing together? Good job the payoff meant you could forgive it.

ELECTION BROADCAST OF THE WEEK
The Green Party ad that featured a cutesy bunny rabbit zapping three red, blue and yellow-coloured Daleks. Sadly, it was pulled from YouTube within a few hours – we suspect the lawyer for Dalek creator Terry Nation’s estate may have had a quiet word…

MOST PUNCHABLE ANIMATED TOSSPOT OF THE WEEK
Graham Norton.

CGI SNAKE OF THE WEEK
DVD label 2Entertain gladdened the hearts of Fifth Doctor fans this week by announcing they’re bringing out a box set of ’80s tales “Kinda” and “Snakedance”, both featuring the Mara. The exciting part, revealed in this trailer: they’ve produced optional CGI effects for “Kinda”, replacing the awful rubber snake that ruins the climax with a new CGI version.

SAUNA OF THE WEEK
The Apollo Cinema bar for the Arthur C Clarke awards. The heart of the sun might be marginally less sweaty.

STAR WARS TIE-IN TAT OF THE WEEK
An elegant implement, for a more civilised age. Lightsaber chopstick sets. Perfect for that Admiral Ackbar sushi dish.

PUB NAME OF THE WEEK
… and also unexpected press release of the week – we don’t usually get emailed when a new pub opens. But we can see why the people running this one (located at 383 Essex Road, Islington) did.

EXPERT WARNING OF THE WEEK
Stephen Hawking reckons trying to make contact with alien races is risky. “If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn’t turn out very well for the Native Americans.” Yikes. Has anyone told SETI?

DELAYED BLUB OF THE WEEK
Got to admit, it was only when we remembered that the latest UK-screened episode of Fringe was called “White Tulip” that we realised how exquisitely heart-rending the end scene was. At first, we were just wondering he’d been sent a drawing of a melting toffee apple.

TURNING OVER A NEW LEAF OF THE WEEK
The idea of a Charmed comic didn’t exactly have us waiting on tenterhooks… at least, not until we saw the cover for issue two. Blimey. That’s not the show we remember. But it’s the one we dreamt about occasionally. Is it just a coincidence that the artist is Greg Horn?

UNINTENDED INNUENDO OF THE WEEK
Honestly, China Miéville’s latest tome, Kraken (catch the review in SFX196), is full of Spurry Award potential (MOST UNEXPECTED CAMEO FROM A TRIBBLE springs to mind) but we know you all love an out-of-context quote with phnarrrr potential, so here goes: “Dane held his Kirk in the air and waved it.” What makes it better is that his “Kirk” is indeed a little man… (a Captain Kirk action figure, in fact).

STOCK MARKET TIP OF THE WEEK
If you’re the type who likes to dabble in shares, you might want to invest in biscuit manufacturers Burton’s Foods* – but do it before Saturday night, eh? Why? Sorry, we’ll have to dodge that question for now…

* Warning: the price of shares may go down as well as up. And if you take financial advice from us, probably will.

CRITICAL MAULING OF THE WEEK
No, it’s not Ian reviewing the latest episode of V for Spoiler Zone (though it could well have been). The Washington Post called the new Addams Family musical, “this year’s answer to the question, ‘How many talented people does it take to screw up a concept?’” The critic was even so bored, that he claims he spent the evening staring at the drapes, coming up some new lyrics for the famous theme tune: “If you’re among the purists/You’ll take a knife to your wrists/It’s strictly for the tourists!/”The Addams Family”!

QI-STYLE FACT OF THE WEEK
Watching Matt Smith’s Doctor Who has made us wonder: why, exactly, do people shout the name of a Native American leader when jumping out of aeroplanes, and the like? Turns out it dates back to 1940, and a paratrooper called Aubrey Eberhardt, who’d been watching a movie about Geronimo the night before making a jump. Read more here.

WORST LIP SYNCHING OF THE WEEK
How much fun was that “Uptown Girl” skit in Ashes To Ashes? Gene Hunt flouncing across the screen like a poncing poof (as he’d no doubt so tactfully put it if he saw himself). Classic. Russell, who’s reviewing Ashes for Spoiler Zone, rightly points out that it was funnier than anything they came up with for Sport Relief. When it came to lip synching, though, Philip Glenister could do with extra training. It look less like he was miming and more like he was coincidentally chewing gum in rhythm.

MOST DEPRESSING CAREER DECLINE OF THE WEEK
You still can’t get better than a Kwik Fit fitter, it seems – at least, not if you’re a talking car from Knight Rider.

MOST CREATIVE SWEARING OF THE WEEK
Step forward James Kochalka’s Superf**kers, which follows a bunch of teenage asshole superheroes. It’s absolutely crammed full of potty talk. Above are just a few of our favourite examples…

BOOK COVER OF THE WEEK
Y’know, some awards just speak for themselves.

MONDAY 29 MARCH

• Less than a week to go until the start of Doctor Who. Celebrate with our Doctor Who week on the SFX website.
• FlashForward returns to Five at 9pm.
• Today’s haul of new DVDs includes The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus, Clive Barker’s Dread, the Catweazle 40th Anniversary Edition, Doctor Who: Myths And Legends and 2012.

TUESDAY 30 MARCH

• Caprica and Fringe are on Sky1 (9pm and 10pm, respectively), while The Vampire Diaries is on ITV2 (9pm).
• Tune into Radio 4 for The Gorbals Vampire, a documentary about a Glasgow “monster” that led to new censorship laws in the UK, “ban this sick filth!”-style.

WEDNESDAY 31 MARCH

• Time’s nearly up for Lost. Start waving goodbye with SFX‘s new Lost Special.
• You may have caught the previews earlier in the week, but today’s the day Kick-Ass makes its proper cinema debut. It’s joined by How To Train Your Dragon in 3D, no less.
• The Winchesters do their thing (they’re quite good at it by now) in Supernatural on Living at 9pm.
• There’s a bunch of Big Finish Doctor Who adventures out today.

THURSDAY 1 APRIL

• It’s April Fool’s Day, so keep your wits about you.
• Seek out Legend Of The Seeker on SCI FI at 8pm.
• James Miller’s Sunshine State comes to bookshops.
• Learn How To Survive A Zombie Apocalypse in Bath.

FRIDAY 2 APRIL

• SEASON PREMIERE! Gene Hunt returns for the last time in the final series of Ashes To Ashes, on BBC One at 9pm.
• Odyssey 2010, this year’s Eastercon, gets underway at Heathrow.
• Jon Culshaw takes a look at Douglas Adams time as Doctor Who script editor in The Doctor And Douglas on Radio 4.
• Star Wars: In Concert lands in Birmingham.

SATURDAY 3 APRIL

• SEASON PREMIERE! It’s the one you’ve been waiting for. Matt Smith makes his debut in Doctor Who at 6.20pm on BBC One. And don’t forget Doctor Who Confidential on BBC Three at 7.25pm.
• Toby Stephens plays 007 in Goldfinger on Radio 4 at 2.30pm.
• SEASON PREMIERE! K9 starts his solo adventures on Disney XD at 4pm.
• There’s also time for a little Star Wars: The Clone Wars on Sky Movies Premiere at 5.30pm, and Heroes on BBC Two at 9.55pm.
• London’s O2 Arena’s the venue for tonight’s slice of Star Wars: In Concert. Make sure you set the DTR for Who.

SUNDAY 4 APRIL

• Celebrate Easter with a bit of Star Wars: In Concert at the O2 (formerly known as The Millennium Dome).
• Catch Heroes on BBC Three at 11.05pm. K9 continues on Disney XD at 4pm.

Got an event you’d like to see in SFX’s listings? Drop us a line at sfxevents@futurenet.co.uk.

With the new and final series of Ashes To Ashes only a few weeks away (apparently), its creators and stars have been busy Twittering. Dean Andrews, aka the Met’s cerebrally challenged Raymondo, Tweeted that, “I think it’s planned for 23rd March but don’t quote me!” No, of course we won’t, Dean (whoops!). Meanwhile, Ashes’ creator Matthew Graham was fielding questions this week about the ill-fated American version of Life On Mars. “Keitel seemed like a god-send until we saw the rushes,” he wrote, following it up with: ‘Harvey Keitel is one of the world’s great actors but he was physically too slight and too old for the role. Great shame.”

Elsewhere on Twitter in the last week, the newly BAFTA-ised Duncan Jones responded to a question about whether he’d be interested in doing the planned Judge Dredd movie: “One day, I would love to tell you my idea for a Judge Dredd film… But not yet. :)” he Twittered, before adding, “Hmmm.. you know…. Sam Rockwell WOULD make a pretty fantastic Dredd, when you think about it…” Is this a subtle announcement that he’s under consideration for the directing gig and that Rockwell may be donning Mega City One’s finest’s helmet? Then again, he might not be being completely serious: “Haha! Ok… I’ll give you my tweet version. It’s a Dredd take on the film ‘Man bites Dog,’ & involves Death & the League of Fatties.”

After letting slip through Twitter that he’d read the Avengers movie script, Marvel boss Joe Quesada responded to a question about Kenneth Branagh’s currently-lensing Thor and seemed keen to reassure worried fans: “ETA on reveal of Thor movie costume, I honestly don’t know, but will assure you this. Every Marvel fan will love it. Not kidding.” And proof that even comics top dogs get star-struck, he also Twitteredd this: “Is it wrong of me to go into full blown fanman nerdgasm when I see an e-mail waiting in my inbox from John Lasstter? Just askin’.” Bless him, he’s just like US!

Also last week, director Edgar Wright did some unsubtle name-dropping: “Met Tom Hanks. Said I heard Starship Troopers was his favourite film. He says it’s the Citizen Kane of Sci Fi. Proceed to love him even more!” And just to prove that becoming part of Hollywood’s a-list hasn’t diluted his fanboy heart, Simon Pegg Twittered: ‘Got the complete Buffy on DVD for my birthday. Starting from the top, ep one. Welcome to Sunnnydale peeps. Shit’s about to get teenspooky!” Surely he had the boxset already though…?

Finally, SFX’s own columnist Warren Ellis felt the need last week to clarify the difference between himself and the other famous Warren Ellis: “I am not the musician Warren Ellis who works with Nick Cave,” Tweeted the Comic Ellis. “Leave now if you’re looking for an Aussie with a Hobo Rape Thicket beard!”

And what’s Neil Gaiman been chatting to Guillermo Del Toro about. On his Tweet he mentions, “Guillermo was in fine form. Many movies were discussed over lunch including Death and The Hobbit.” Death? As in Death from Sandman? Ooooh, tantalising. Unless Death And The Hobbit is what The Hobbit Part Two is going to be called…

May 2009

December 2007

SFX historical note: The following was part of a monthly production diary that Ashes To Ashes creator/writer Matthew Graham did for us…